How Fred met his future wife, Alice Haynes, I don’t know. Alice was a Primitive Methodist and Fred, of course, a Wesleyan. Perhaps as part of his training, Fred had to go and preach in local churches and so met Alice who lived at Old Hill. Fred was going to India as a missionary and so Alice and Fred were engaged in England and then, according to their daughter, Bessie Goodwill, Alice suggested that Fred went out first to get things sorted out.
Fred went to India in 1899 and was appointed Superintendent of theWesleyan Tamil Mission, stationed in Bangalore. Alice and Fred were married in India at Tumkur in 1901.
Fred loved Indian culture and people. He was a fantastic photographer, not just of landscapes and beautiful buildings but people going about their everyday lives – women winnowing, men ploughing with oxen, wild looking men with long matted hair, a child chained by the ankle, a mother showering an infant, even a goat about to be executed with a machete. It was as though he could not get enough of India and its people and his pride at working alongside them just shines through in all he does...
Fred was instrumental in giving girls a good education regardless of caste. He saw that in his own words, “in preparing girls for future work we remember that we are preparing workers to hasten the time when foreign missionaries will be a thing of the past.”
I am sure he would have been proud that in 1995 all the teaching staff were Indian and there were “1,200 children from all sections of society, the majority coming from economically weaker groups.”
Jane Smith, England - Fred Goodwill’s grand daughter in a piece describing her grandfather.
(The Goodwill Girls’ High School in Fraser Town was named after him.)